NEW YORK — Among the 106 defendants named in a massive disability fraud case undertaken by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office are eight men listed as living in the mid Hudson.

All of the people charged were wrongly receiving thousands of dollars in federal disability benefits, prosecutors said Tuesday. Those arrested include 72 city police officers, eight firefighters, five correction officers and one Nassau County Police Department officer.

Prosecutors say one retired police officer who told the government he was too psychologically damaged to work ran a martial arts studio, prosecutors said. Another claimed his depression was so crippling it kept him house-bound, but he was photographed aboard a watercraft, they said. A third man who said he was incapable of social interactions manned a cannoli stand at a street festival.

According to the Manhattan DA's Office, among the people charged with second-degree grand larceny and fourth-degree criminal facilitation, felonies, were Brian Carey, 48, of Middletown; Daniel Conklin, 46, and Vincent Gergenti, 58, of Warwick; Thomas Galimi, 52, of New Hampton; William Gross, 51, of Campbell Hall; Kevin Hurley, 53, of New Windsor; Michael Kull, 46, of Milton; and Terrance Johnson, 51, listed as living in Orange County.

Four ringleaders coached the former workers on how to feign depression and other mental health problems that allowed them to get payouts as high as $500,000 over decades, Vance said. The ringleaders made tens of thousands of dollars in secret kickbacks, he said.

The four — retired officer Joseph Esposito, 64; detectives' union disability consultant John Minerva, 61; lawyer and former FBI agent and suburban prosecutor Raymond Lavallee, 83; and benefits consultant Thomas Hale, 89 — sat stolidly as they pleaded not guilty to high-level grand larceny charges. All were released on bail, ranging from $250,000 to $1 million.

Defense lawyers said the four staunchly denied the accusations, and some noted their clients had legitimate jobs helping people seek benefits. Minerva wasn't "steering people or telling people what to say when they applied for those benefits," said his attorney, Glenn Hardy.

Esposito's lawyer, Brian Griffin, pointed out that, according to prosecutors, many of the benefit-seekers had been found eligible for city disability pensions before they got federal benefits.

But prosecutors noted eligibility for Social Security disability benefits is a higher bar — complete inability to work — than qualifying for a city worker disability pension. And they said the applicants strategically lied, with the ringleaders' guidance, to make themselves appear to meet it.

Police Commissioner William Bratton said the arrests represented an effort to ensure "the memories of those who did, in fact, contribute their lives or their physical well-being to dealing with 9/11 are not sullied."

Over 26 years, the workers arrested collected about $22 million in bogus benefits, authorities said, and more arrests could follow. Prosecutors estimate hundreds more people and as much as $400 million may be involved.